(CNN) - A top aide to John McCain said Monday she thought comedian Tina Fey's impersonation of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin on NBC's Saturday Night Live over the weekend was sexist because it portrayed the Alaska governor as lacking in substance.

The NBC comedy show's season premiere began with a "nonpartisan message" during which Fey's Palin and Amy Poehler's depiction of Hillary Clinton called for an end to sexism in the presidential race.

"The portrait was very dismissive of the substance of Sarah Palin, and so in that sense, they were defining Hillary Clinton as very substantive, and Sarah Palin as totally superficial," Fiorina told MSNBC earlier Monday. "I think that continues the line of argument that is disrespectful in the extreme, and yes, I would say, sexist in the sense that just because Sarah Palin has different views than Hillary Clinton does not mean that she lacks substance."

The former Hewlett-Packard CEO is among McCain's most high profile surrogates and earlier this month was the first member of the Arizona senator's campaign to suggest Democrats were launching sexist attacks at the Republican VP candidate.

"I am appalled by the Obama campaign's attempts to belittle Governor Sarah Palin’s experience,” Fiorina said then. “The facts are that Sarah Palin has made more executive decisions as a Mayor and Governor than Barack Obama has made in his life."

(CNN) - His campaign team may have held conference calls, released ads and sent a flurry of memos charging that Barack Obama was slurring Sarah Palin when he used the phrase “lipstick on a pig” - but John McCain apparently thinks otherwise.

“Did he call her a pig?" the Republican presidential nominee was asked Monday in a briefing for reporters for the Associated Press and Florida newspapers.

"No,” responded McCain, who called his Democratic counterpart “eloquent.”

“But I know that he chooses his words carefully, and it was the wrong thing to say...

"I didn't like it. So we respond. I think the American people will judge as to whether he and others have treated Governor Palin fairly or not" - but the campaign will continue to respond to what it considers an attack. The Arizona senator also defended Palin’s record on earmarks, taxes and the Bridge to Nowhere.

Last week, he defended the Web ad his campaign had produced that said Obama had disrespected Palin, the Republican VP nominee, when he used the phrase to criticize McCain’s policy positions.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado (CNN) – At the start of his western swing, Senator Barack Obama continued to paint John McCain as a creature of Washington, so steeped in the ways there that “change” under a McCain-Palin administration is impossible.

“It’s great that he now wants to talk about putting corporate lobbyists in their place. But he needs to explain why he put seven of them in charge of his campaign,” he said at an outdoor rally under a cloudless Colorado sky. “If you think those lobbyists are working day and night for John McCain just to put themselves out of business, well I’ve got a bridge to sell you up in Alaska.”

While Obama said McCain was not personally responsible for the current turmoil in Wall Street, he said the Arizona senator would continue the policies that put various financial institutions like Lehman Brothers on the brink.

(CNN) - Hours after calling the economy ‘strong,’ John McCain appeared to clarify the comment Monday afternoon, minutes after he was derided as "out of touch" by the Obama campaign.

"My opponents may disagree, but those fundamentals of America are strong," McCain said at a campaign event in Orlando. "No one can match an American worker. Our workers sell more goods to more markets than any other on earth. Our workers have always been the strength of our economy, and they remain the strength of our economy today."

“But their efforts are not being matched at the top," he added. "From Washington to Wall Street, the top of our economy is broken. We have seen self interest, greed, irresponsibility and corruption undermine the hard work of the American people."

McCain faced criticism earlier in the day from Democrats for telling a Jacksonville crowd that, "Our economy - I think, still - the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times."

GOLDEN, Colorado (CNN) - With the tremors on Wall Street reverberating throughout the political world on Monday, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin unveiled a revised stump speech that focused on the troubled economy.

Palin blamed corporate executives for the failure of the investment bank Lehman Brothers, and said the government’s financial regulatory system “is outdated and needs a complete overhaul.

“Washington has been asleep at the switch and ineffective and management on Wall Street has not run these institutions responsibly and has put companies and markets at risk,” she said, adding that “every effort” has to be made to ensure that the bank deposits and investments of regular Americans remain solvent.

Echoing one of John McCain’s favorite lines, the Alaska governor said she was pleased taxpayer money would not be used to bail out Lehman, as it was following the collapse of Bear Stearns last spring.

(CNN) - The Obama campaign is preparing rolling out a new line of “faith merchandise” – the latest move in an ambitious effort to win over religious voters.

“Check out the Believers for Barack, Pro-Family Pro-Obama, and Catholics for Obama buttons, bumper stickers and signs....” says Obama Deputy Director of Religious Affairs Paul Monteiro in an e-mail obtained by the Beliefnet Web site.

“Believers for Barack rally signs and bumper stickers, along with all Pro-Family Pro-Obama merchandise, are appropriate for people of all faith backgrounds. We'll soon be rolling out merchandise for other religious groups and denominations, but I wanted to get this out to you without delay,” he adds.

Both campaigns have been making a major push for the Catholic vote, which has gone to the winning presidential campaign in every race since 1976, except Al Gore’s 2000 White House bid.

Beliefnet reported that "Clergy for Change" and "Pro-Israel Pro-Obama" merchandise will soon be offered.

Last week, the Obama campaign began to offer merchandise with a slightly more worldly appeal: New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week marked the debut of clothing and accessories by some of the nation’s top designers. The collection, announced earlier this summer, includes totes, shirts and other merchandise designed by about two dozen major industry names, including Narciso Rodriguez, Zac Posen and Vera Wang.

The McCain campaign accused Obama's campaign of encouraging 'Swift Boat-style,' attack in a new ad.

(CNN) - John McCain’s campaign accused Barack Obama’s Monday of encouraging a “Swift Boat-style” attack ad, produced by an independent group, that debuted this week on national cable.

McCain-Palin spokesman Michael Goldfarb pointed to news reports as evidence the spot from Brave New PAC and Democracy for America had been launched “apparently at the behest of the Obama campaign.”

In the 30-second ad, McCain’s fellow prisoner of war Philip Butler describes the Republican nominee as “unfit to lead” – making the spot one of the first to mention McCain’s POW stint in a negative context.

"The prisoner of war experience is not a good prerequisite for president of the United States," says Butler. "He was known as a very volatile guy and he would blow up and go like a Roman candle. John McCain is not someone I would like to see with his finger near the red button."

The ad’s release comes amid reports that the conservative American Issues Project is planning a multi-million dollar negative ad buy aimed at the Democratic nominee.

None of these groups are allowed to communicate or coordinate with the campaigns in any way because of federal campaign finance regulations.